A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF?—revised and annotated with brand-new illustrations and answers to important questions you never thought to ask—coming from November 2024. Preorder here!
[[A teenager stands talking to a parent off-screen.]]
Parent: No, you can't go.
Teenager: But all my friends-
Parent If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump too?
Teenager: Oh Jeez. Probably.
Parent: What!? Why!?
Teenager Because all my friends did. Think about it - which scenario is more likely:
Teenager: Every single person I know, many of them levelheaded and afraid of heights, abruptly went crazy at exactly the same time... ... or the bridge is on fire?
Parent: ... I, uh... hmm.
Teenager: Imagine reading this on CNN: "Many fled their vehicles and jumped from the bridge. Those who stayed behind..." Is something good about to happen to those people?
Parent: Maybe they'll find cookies?
Teenager: OK, *you* stay. I'm jumping.
{{Title text: And it says a lot about you that when your friends jump off a bridge en masse, your first thought is apparently 'my friends are all foolish and I won't be like them' and not 'are my friends ok?'.}}
xkcd.com is best viewed with Netscape Navigator 4.0 or below on a Pentium 3±1 emulated in Javascript on an Apple IIGS at a screen resolution of 1024x1. Please enable your ad blockers, disable high-heat drying, and remove your device from Airplane Mode and set it to Boat Mode. For security reasons, please leave caps lock on while browsing.